BESLAN, Russia (Sept. 4) - More than 340 people, including 155 children, were killed in the violence that ended a hostage standoff with militants at a southern Russian school, a prosecutor said Saturday. President Vladimir Putin accused the attackers of trying to spark an ethnic conflict that would engulf Russia's troubled Caucasus Mountains region.
Russian Deputy Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky told reporters that 322 victims were killed, as well as all 26 militants involved in the seizure of the school. That raised the death toll well beyond the 250 officials had previously cited.
Medical officials said more than 542 people including 336 children were hospitalized after the eruption of violence that ended the 62-hour hostage drama on Friday. The hostage-takers - who had been demanding independence for nearby Chechnya - held the more than 1,000 hostages in the school's sweltering gymnasium, refusing to let in food or water.
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also from article:
"Fathers will bury their children, and after 40 days (the Orthodox Christian mourning period) ... they will take up weapons and seek revenge," said Alan Kargiyev, a 20-year-old university student in the regional capital Vladikavkaz.
Question: Was this a Russian Orthodox Christian school?
It was reported yesterday that when news of shooting at the school spread, many of the towns men got their own guns and raced to the scene. There definitely will be more bloodshed over this horrible incident. It's the kind of thing that sparks generations of warfare in that part of the world.